CFTC Settles With Former FTX Engineer for $3.7M, Closing First Individual Case

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has finalized a disgorgement order against former FTX engineering head Nishad Singh with no civil penalty imposed, closing the first individual case in the agency’s multi-year FTX enforcement action.

A supplemental consent order filed in the Southern District of New York requires Singh to pay $3.7 million in disgorgement, representing real estate he purchased in October 2022 with funds he knew consisted of misappropriated FTX customer assets, per the order.

In addition to the $3.7 million disgorgement, the consent order imposes a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban. The CFTC waived restitution and civil penalties, citing Singh’s cooperation and his joint and several liability for an $11.02 billion criminal forfeiture order.

Singh “engaged in, and aided, significant violations of the Act and CFTC regulations as the former FTX head of engineering, and the consent orders reflect the severity of these violations,” CFTC director of enforcement David Miller said in a statement.

Still, the resolution of Singh’s case points to the Commission’s stance on “rewarding and incentivizing material assistance” for its investigations, Miller added.

Singh’s settlement represents the first individual case the CFTC has fully resolved in its FTX enforcement action, which began in December 2022.

He served as FTX’s head of engineering and admitted in his February 2023 guilty plea to maintaining code that allowed Alameda Research to withdraw billions in customer funds from the exchange without disclosure.

In October 2024, he testified against Bankman-Fried at trial and received no prison time for doing so.

“It’s almost impossible to quantify the role of someone building systems that enabled the misappropriation of customer funds, because systems are systems,” Christian Ruz, business strategy director at crypto agency Hype, told Decrypt.

Singh “built a centralized system to manage deposits, customer funds and trading activities,” Ruz said, adding that such a system is “neither good nor bad on its own, but it’s how you use it.”

The FTX collapse

After roughly $8 billion in customer deposits were funneled to sister trading firm Alameda Research to cover losses, fund luxury real estate, and finance political contributions, FTX collapsed in November 2022.

The fallout triggered criminal charges against five executives, a $12.7 billion CFTC judgment against the corporate entities, and a bankruptcy process that has since distributed roughly $10 billion to creditors from an estimated $16 billion estate.

A fourth round of repayments worth $2.2 billion began Tuesday.

Monetary remedies against FTX executives Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, who was released from federal custody in early 2026, remain pending on the CFTC’s civil docket, while FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s case is stayed as he represents himself in a bid for a new trial from federal prison.

Ruz said the remaining CFTC cases could take longer to resolve, estimating closure by mid 2027.

“We know how justice works and this is one of the most complex cases, and parties involved will try to delay the final verdict,” he added.

In a recent interview with Dastan co-founder Farokh Sarmad, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig warned that failing to regulate prediction markets could lead to FTX-style “implosions,” invoking the exchange’s collapse as the agency continues resolving its enforcement docket from that fallout.